Speed on the Horizon#
My brother has always wanted an S2000 after getting mine. The high revving engine and light weight car was an unbeatable combination. At this point, my brother had already done some laps in mine at a track day so he was keen on picking up his own soon. And so, he started looking.
On October 15th, 2024 my brother sent me a listing for a 2006 Berlina Black S2000. It looked like a great deal but the only caveat was that it was in Missouri. After setting up a call with the owner, we checked for and found no rust. In addition, we did our due diligence and figured that this was a pretty good deal. Pretty soon, we were preparing for a trip to Michigan.
Flying Over#
I had recently graduated from college and my parents had given me a $500 Southwest Airlines gift card. I was originally planning on getting a job in the Bay Area and they had intended for it to cover my fare. However, this would instead serve as a ticket for both me and my brother to fly out of Ontario (ONT) to Las Vegas (LAS) for a quick 1 hour layover. We would then fly from Las Vegas to Tulsa (TUL) where we would meet the seller. He had taken the liberty of making the hour and half drive from Missouri to Tulsa in order to make this sale.
Looking at the S2000#
After landing, we waited for about 20 minutes before he arrived. He showed us around the car and we took it for a test drive around the airport. One of the things we noticed was that the clutch was on its way out and had a pretty high bite point. We also confirmed that the CEL light was on due to catalytic convertor with my OBD2 scanner. We were pretty happy with the car but were able to negotiate the price down to 17k. After signing the paperwork, we were on our way home.
We also noticed it did have a small tear in the softop. This would eventually become massive throughout our trip becoming a massive headache with all of the wind noise. We did try to patch it with duck tape but only had limited success.
Heading Home#
There was no easy way back, we had a roughly 20 hour drive under ideal conditions. Since we had two drivers, we didn’t plan on getting a place to stay at overnight and just raw dog it back to Riverside. We were getting hungry so we decided to grab some local fast food in the form of Charlie’s Chicken.
Honestly the food wasn’t that bad and it was cheap (compared to California prices). It served as good fuel for us to go on despite being on the heavier side. Speaking of fuel, it was amazing to see such cheap gas prices. We got a receipt from a Costco gas which served as a bit of a souvenir.
After our fuel up, we started to begin our long drive east. After some time, we made it into Amarillo, Texas where we picked up some gas and dinner. This was the first time my brother and I had grabbed some Del Taco and found it pretty good. Although quite a bit messy, we enjoyed it and would try it again. We made a quick stop at a Rite Aid to clean up a bit and decided that it was a good time to head out.
We steadily made our way east throughout the evening. Due to some road closures, we had to make a couple of detours but overall conditions it was good. We were able to enjoy a sunset as it turned to night.
Grand Canyon#
Things were good until about midnight when we just crossed into New Mexico. A massive shower hit us and we had to slow to 40mph where even semi trucks were passing us. We focused on keeping the car on the road for about 30 minutes where we eventually made it out of the storm. We continued driving until about 4 AM where we pulled over to rest for a bit.
At about 7 in the morning, we made it to Flagstaff, Arizona. Since it was on the way, we checked out the Grand Canyon. To get there, we headed up via the scenic Route 180. At the time it was snowing and we experienced an enjoyable drive through the winter wonderland. This was quite surprising considering we were in Arizona of all places but was quite welcome. Per usual, the Grand Canyon was a great sight to see.
After our detour, we got back on the road. During lunch time, we stopped by Kingman to try Culver’s. A friend of mine had highly suggested it so we decided to give it a try. It wasn’t bad but I would pick In-n-Out over it any day. After our lunch, our lack of rest began piling up. You can see the exhaustion on my brother’s face in the picture. At this point, we had both done around 8 hours of driving. However, since we were close to the finish line, we decided to keep pushing.
After some time, we eventually made it back into California. We still had another couple of hours to go but it was truly the final stretch. Our route had us drive through Joshua Tree National Park and past Chuckwalla Raceway. Someday, the same car we were currently in would eventually go to that track.
At 6PM, we had finally arrived at my brother’s place in Riverside. We had left for the airport on Saturday October 19th at 4:30 AM and had finally arrived back in Riverside at 6 PM. We had each driven 11 hours for a total of a 22 hour drive. After much adventure and exhaustion, the BBS2K had finally arrived home.
Conclusion#
So, what did this trip net us? We had paid 17K for the S2000 and about 600 dollars for the flight tickets to Tulsa. I estimate about 300 dollars for food and gas heading back as well. Overall, it was a lot of Type 2 fun. The seats were worn so it was uncomfortable to sit, the softop was torn so lots of wind noise, and the clutch was rough so it was hard to drive. However, I would do this again in a heartbeat…for a great deal on an S2000.